"If you had invested on Jan. 1, 1930, after the crash already had destroyed a third of the stock market's value, where would you have gotten the greatest gains?

The short answer: In 1930, 1931 and 1932, nowhere. There was no real refuge in the storm..."

"Politicians keep saying, "People have to begin to understand we're in bad shape," and "People should realize it's a crisis." I think they know, Sherlock. Do you? Our political leaders are like a doctor who rushes to the scene of a terrible crash, bends over a hemorrhaging woman and says, "This is serious, lady, you can't take it lightly." She looks up at him: "Help me, do something, I'm bleeding out!" The doctor, to the local TV cameras: "I hope she knows she's in trouble." ---Peggy Noonan

Her column lists all the closed stores she sees in Manhattan, a story that New York magazine also did this week...."New York, as any amateur anthropologist can see, is in the midst of a retail shakeout of historic proportions."

When my kids were little, I bought them a picture book whose title was "It's Coming."

Earnest students pass up comfortable leather seats to sit hunched over books on rigid wooden chairs. You are like some kind of library seeking missile.....Instead of an indefinite article you should associate your name with a Queen Anne chair. Formality and grace trump comfort and ease....From here in my leather wing chair, I wish you a Happy Valentine's Day and luck in your pursuit of the perfect library.

He is chairman of the Capital Markets Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.

Here he is on C-SPAN talking about a mysterious $550 billion rapid, unexpected drawdown on U.S. money market accounts on September 15, 2008.

"On Thursday at about 11 o'clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two.

"The Treasury opened up its window to help. It pumped $105 billion into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there, and that's what actually happened."

"If they had not done that, their estimation was that by 2 o'clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy system of the United States and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed."

This was the week after the Lehman bankruptcy, which had huge repercussions. For example, Ford, which had a backup line of credit with Lehman, drew down its other lines to pump up cash, hoping to avoid the risk that these lines would be inaccessible too. Many other corporations did the same, with a resulting huge draw on banks and investment banks for lines of credit.

The financial institutions had to get money to fund the draws on the lines they had given to the corporations, so they both drew on money funds they had and tried to issue more commercial paper. The cash demand was huge.

In the same week two large money funds "broke the buck," meaning that they did not have sufficient liquid resources to redeed their investors at the par value of $1 per share. These funds, sponsored by Mellon and Putnam, stopped redemptions. This of course caused more people to seek redemptions in other funds. (I transferred all my liquid assets from money market to short term treasuries that week.)

The risk was that the short term funding mechanism would freeze completely worldwide. This risk was avoided by (1) Treasury guaranteeing money funds up to $250,000 and (2) Federal Reserve putting about $300 billion into banks by buying less liquid assets and giving banks cash for these assets.

Despite these actions, short term financing, which is still the economy's life blood, became much harder to obtain but a total collapse was avoided.

Kanjorski is not the brightest bulb, and he is wrong about several important facts.

1. The $250,000 guarantee came on the 19th, not the 15th.2. The government did not "shut down" any redemptions. Indeed it probably has no power to do so and the effect of such an action would be to restrict credit, not enhance it.3. There was not a $550 billion drawdown on September 15 (it was less) and it certainly was not unexpected, given the Lehman bankruptcy over the weekend.

In short, this is nothing new, though it was a dicey moment. It was also a moment in which Treasury and the Fed performed well.

By an large members of Congress have no understanding of what has been going on, or why Treasury and the Fed have been having such a difficult time. This leads to stupid and uninformed criticism, which leads to further loss of confidence, which is the last thing we need.

I sometimes try to find clues in these Althouse photos, to see if I can figure out where she is. I tried, and I'm coming up empty.

A college town, probably, since that fellow on the left has a scientific calculator on the table. Interesting room, with the stage in the background along the brick wall, converted currently to more dining space.

Interesting too that there are no windows in the image; that bright area on the right appears to be a spotlighted picture.

I really think we should run with this “Althouse is Dead” rumor, however irresponsible it may seem. At least until she returns. We can go back to her old posts and photos and look for clues and hints. Like her recent Beatles posts, for instance.

From Wiki…

The most common tale is that on Wednesday, 9 November 1966 at 5 am, McCartney, while working on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, stormed out of a recording session after an argument with the other Beatles and rode off in his Aston Martin which he subsequently crashed into a lamp post, and died.The story was pieced together from the lyrics of multiple Beatles songs. The most common narrative includes the following pieces of evidence:1. "He didn't notice that the lights had changed" ("A Day in the Life"). 2. He then crashed into a lamp-post (a car crash sound is heard in "Revolution 9" and "A Day in the Life"). 3. He was pronounced dead on a "Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day begins" ("She's Leaving Home") 4. Nobody found this out because the news was withheld: "Wednesday morning papers didn't come" ("Lady Madonna"). 5. A funeral procession was held days later, as was supposedly implied on the Abbey Road album cover by the Beatles' clothing. (John Lennon dressed all in white, like a clergyman. Ringo Starr wore a black suit as an undertaker would. Paul McCartney wore a suit without shoes, a common custom for corpses being buried, and walked out of step with the other Beatles. George Harrison's denim outfit resembled that of a gravedigger.) 6. Adding fuel to the legend is the ending of "Strawberry Fields Forever". Some believed John said "I buried Paul" in a slow deep voice over the final refrain. He later denied that, stating that he had said "cranberry sauce".

According to believers, McCartney was replaced with the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest. The name of this look-alike has been recorded as William Shears Campbell, Billy Shears (the name of the fictitious leader of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band), William Sheppard (based on the alleged inspiration for the song "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"), or some combination of the names.

McCartney during the filming of the "Rain" video, showing the chipped tooth and scar from the moped crash at the end of the previous year.

A ha! No wonder Althouse took exception to my post of the Rain video after she commented about “water” references in Beatles songs.

Chris Farley: O-kay.. remember.. you remember when you were with The Beatles, and you were supposed to be dead, and, uh, there was all these clues, that, like, uh, you played some song backwards, and it'd say, like, "Paul Is Dead", and, uh, everyone thought that you were dead? That was, um, a hoax, right?

Paul McCartney: Yeah. I wasn't really dead.

Chris Farley: Right. I think we.. I think we got time for one more question. Uh.. remember when you were in The Beatles? And, um, you did that album Abbey Road, and at the very end of the song, it would.. the song goes, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make"? You.. you remember that?

Paul McCartney: Yes.

Chris Farley: Uh.. is that true?

Paul McCartney: Yes, Chris. In my experience, it is. I find, the more you give, the more you get.

50 bucks says she voted the straight Obamabot ticket. Same as wutzerface Althouse… claims to be true liberal and then votes for a nothing-burger and then whines there’s no there there! Cry me a river, ladies, and when you learn to vote with some integrity, maybe I’ll care.

If she's driving to Miami, who will teach her classes? It is a three day weekend though.

Maybe to make extra money for camera lenses she's taken up delivering cars, like in Vanishing Point. And right now she's in a 1970 Dodge Challenger racing to Miami, only stopping at coffee shops to pick up her next hit of caffeine and pee. Oh, and upload mysterious photos.

And she wont have to worry about cops because she knows that apologizing trick.

..the female astronaut who decided it would be a good idea to get into a car, drive 900 miles from Texas to Florida, and to "talk" to a woman who she, the astronaut, thought was trying to "steal her man."

@Original George: That stuff about the pennies is actually very interesting to me. I used to collect U.S. coins when I was kid, back in the day when you still found wheat pennies, steel pennies and the occasional silver dime or quarter. I saved every one too. Haven't looked at them in years.

Zinc is an essential element, and is found in our livers, bodily fluids, and skin. We metabolize alcohol with a zinc-containing enzyme. Elemental Zn, as you depict in your equation does not exist naturally, but is easily prepared. The ancients knew about it indirectly.

The chemistry of the elements is fascinating subject, the study of which can last a lifetime.

I can tell you are a seeker, a person on a personal Quest. A journey of discovery that goes to the very essence of your being.

There are great questions the brave and insightful have always sought answers to. What you seek can be explained simply and generally as greater personal power, a more focused attunement with life, and heightened spiritual awareness.

Those who truly understand Zinc call this Mastery of Life. It embraces all aspects of who you are and all you can be - physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. It is the greatest journey a human being can take.

It begins by inserting a penny between your lips. Hold it behind your teeth. When your tongue is able to "read" the date of mintage, you will have achieved the Higher State. Be patient.

What if she's participating in a version of the "how many people can fit in a telephone booth" stunt, but with an eco-friendly spin? How many people can fit in a car and drive to Miami and back? Thus reducing everyone's carbon footprint.

All this Althouse-speculation! The poor woman's been gone less than a day, and fevered imaginations run wild.

Now she's got her commentariat dangling out of the car and radioactive space aliens squeezed into the trunk. Whither goest thou, Althouse, in thy shiny car in the night?

Next, Sir Archy will have her making a progress through the Kingdom of Bloggia in a coach and six with her court at the head of a regiment of commenters.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if she took a powder to Boston for chowder. But really, let's call the whole thing off.

Far more entertaining would be a tie-in with Los Alamos, and the Metallurgist Chef explaining the culinary wonders of the actinoid series, and why the Oppenheimer Diet is going to be the next big thing in weight loss.

Nothing satisfies Joe Biden more than sitting in front of a mirror and soaking in his own Bidenness. I am not sure there is a word for it. It is not mere narcissim because Biden actually lives off his own reflection...well that and frequent visits to the Senate lunch room.